Dreams These chevroned waves start fromthe mind, ending only there, myriadshapes moving as shadow puppets. There now an island alluring, a meremirage of a choppy sea; chaperonedapparitions for vespertine hours; desires waltzing on the inner palisades.Love lingers in the air as lust leavesthrough the secret doors and rusty hinges. And one day phantasm fizzle out […]
Luca Massimo Lombardo – The Catcher In The Rye
The Catcher In The Rye You wake up early in the morningand it’s already rainingcan’t even understand howand you find yourself in a crowded trainnice girls in their fancy tightsnewspapers talk about debts, markets, televisionit is too much.Someone is reading The Catcher In The Ryestill, there is hope. Bio Luca Massimo Lombardo: My name is […]
Niles Reddick – Chain, Chain, Chain
Chain, Chain, Chain In the dream, I was called to a staff meeting. Hated to go because I imagined there would be announcements about more rules and regulations; changes to benefits, likely reductions in benefits, increased pricing for co-pays, or increased percentages we had to pay for procedures; or extended work hours required in […]
Ron Riekki – A Girl Texts Me Saying I’m Hot
A Girl Texts Me Saying I’m Hot and I think about heat, about fevers and summer and stoves and global warming and campfires and saunas and love. And afterwards, that night, cold bed, I realize that I’ve spent too much time in thought, that I should have swam to her, off this island, crossed […]
Jim Woessner – Innocent
Innocent It started as a wrong number, a chance encounter, totally innocent. A woman telephoned and asked for Joan. My ex-wife is named Joan, so I naturally assumed… But when I explained that Joan no longer lived here, the caller said she was looking for a different Joan. I told her I understood. For years […]
Cancer Scribblers Introductory Video
I’m launching a new series of webinars called Cancer Scribblers, designed to help people living with and after cancer, and caregivers, to get into writing, hone your craft and share your story in your own way! This first video aims to give you a flavour of what the webinars will be like and to introduce […]
Nwankwo Prosper O – thanatology
thanatology to burials and funereals\—i turn up\—a palpable psychopomp\— skinbound in ghost-outfits\ —deathbound\—in a language escorting expired shadows\— of flesh & blood in my breath\ in silence\ i become a gravedancer or thanatologist\— speaking the grave accent\ cohering the living \—with prayer bumps frequented by ghosts\ i palpate thanatographies as my death-assemblage Bio Nwankwo […]
Jordan Hunt – Two Poems
Ethel Burnt hair tips.Crow’s feet etched on the faceFootprints in the snow.Ruby lips flaked purple.Old, brown paper hands, stranglingdoor handles.Soft floral dresses drape around thebones.A contortion of branches. Eyes ripened with age. Bruisedhoney dews.The memories are summer.Sun kissed promises of dancing and smiling and girls.The body is autumn,Moss climbing aching arches waiting to collapse. Waiting […]
Lisa Reily – Two Poems
black tea we return to our room for cups of black teato find your message:i am dying, LOLand the day feels still, hotter than it was;my breakfast, idli and curry, dark grapes and water,feels dead in my belly.each time, it becomes harder,each time, easier;one day you will disappear.when. we stir sugar into our cups, too […]
Julian Grant – 102 Degrees of Love
102 Degrees of Love He lies there, belly swollen from ever-guilty handouts at my table. Although not old, he has the shopworn shab of a much-loved sweater passed hand-to-hand. His muzzle, now grey, bears hard iron bristles where once only soft velvet bloomed. It is his eyes, though, that are forever young, limpid pools of […]